Deepak Chapagain, a resident of Pang VDC in Parbat district is in tension these days.
He is now left in the lurch after his spouse eloped with her lover when she was doing business in Beni, the district headquarters of Myagdi district, not later than one month of his return from foreign job in the gulf country, Qatar, state-owned news agency RSS reports.
Deepak had returned home after working for one year from Qatar. His wife Manju eloped with her distant brother-in-law Raju Paudel leaving in the lurch her two daughters.
Deepak says she left with three tolas of gold and Rs. 17,000 in cash. "In a one year period, I had sent Rs. 700,000 but have only received the explanation of the spending of about Rs. 300,000. I have filed petition at the police with her facial characteristics for a search," said Deepak.
Similarly, Chhetra Bahadur GC of Gairigaun in Piple VDC- 3 in Myagdi district who returned in Magh, 2067 BS from Kuwait is also in search of his wife Kesh Kumari. GC had returned after three years of work there.
But his wife eloped with someone leaving two sons and two daughters with no one to care for them. GC vented his agonies holding a press conference that police did not take any initiative to search for her after she ran away along with Rs. one million and five tolas of gold belonging to the family and neighbours.
Very much saddened, Chhetra Bahadur complained before the media persons that after she eloped with all that he had earned during 12 years in India and three years in Kuwait, he had now neither the hard-earned money nor his life partner with him.
He further expressed his sadness that even if she eloped with another man, all his wealth from labour of years also went in vain, and he asked how to raise his children in his waning days of life as he had neither his wife nor the property.
These are only representative characters, and all of them have amply given the indication that remittances have brought family disintegration in the society. Nepali youths and society have the compulsion to go for foreign jobs for earning a living- either the husband or the wife.
The youthful couple living separate for long has brought many problems, besides family and social disintegration.
DSP of District Police Office, Myagdi, Dinesh Kumar Acharya told RSS those at home lead a luxurious lifestyle in the country from the money sent by those working abroad, and having extra-marital affairs are seen as anomalies in such a situation.
The foreign jobs have drastically increased the economic condition of the persons, but some people have been distracted as the property was not rightly used.
The number of petitions filed at the District Police Office have been increasing for search of persons, the number of cases of divorce has increased in the District Court, as the husband sends money to wife at home, but the wife and property will not be there, and therefore, there has been increasing trend of sending money in joint account from foreign countries in recent times.
Myagdi has some 14,000 youths in foreign employment, as government statistics shows. Petitions for searching for 56 persons had been filed at Myagdi Police in Fiscal Year 2068- 69 BS, and of them, there were 26 women missing. Of those missing, only four were found, said DSP Acharya.
Similarly, in FY 2067-68 BS, 36 people had gone missing and of them, 16 were women and five of them later came to police and family contact.
The police said it has been a headache for them to settle the families destabilized because of foreign employment and people aged 16- 45 are found missing and most are returnees from foreign employment asking for search of missing husband or wife.
Police experience is that although they are said to be missing in petitions, they are found eloping with their second marriage in the most of the cases of women and men, in reality.
Police Inspector Prem Thapa said more petitions are filed saying the wife has been missing along with property.
In Myagdi police, there was a certain petition filed a month ago. A youth of Barangaja working in Indian Army, submitted a petition to search for his wife who was missing after embezzling property.
Police conducted search on the basis of the mobile calls after petition.
During investigation, it was found that the youth had bought a house plot for her in Pokhara, and the youth met the former wife in connection with the investigation, and she agreed to return the property including land and house, and all property but would no longer live together with him and this was informed to the police, said Inspector Thapa.
Police also studied the incidents of suicide linked with foreign employment and it was found that wives have committed suicide one or two days before their husbands come from abroad, said police.
The District Court, Myagdi, has given verdict to 60 cases of divorce in 2068-69 BS and it was foreign employment that was the cause, said Record Keeper of the Court, Harka Bahadur Chhetri.
According psychologists, after the husband goes to foreign country, they do not have physical contact and when their emotional path of exchange is blocked, they resort to seeking an alternative.
Teacher of sociology in Myagdi Multiple Campus, Gorakh Bahadur GC says these evils are seen in all families, in some, the wrong tendency and background also brings deviation in family, but there is no reason to fear the evils and deviations of a few families.
Rights activists say it is, on one hand, women freeing themselves from male-dominated thinking with their economic empowerment, and on the other hand, although the remittance has assisted in rural economy, concerns have increased that its wrong use will bring evils and aberrations in the society with lack of proper utilization.
